Dish Network Will Assume Leases Of More Than 500 Blockbuster Stores

Dish Network, the proud winner of the auction for Blockbuster, will play around with its new toy by not letting it completely vanish.

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required to read story) reports Dish will keep paying the leases of at least 500 Blockbuster stores, while rejecting hundreds of other Blockbuster leases.

According to Deadline, Dish is expected to use Blockbuster to generate a digital streaming service that will compete with Netflix. Dish has yet to reveal what its plans are for the physical Blockbuster stores.